TRANSFER OF SKILLS IN COMPANIES: A REAL TRANSITION ISSUE
During one of my last visits to Dakar, a business manager asked me if we were in charge of skills transfer at the end of the mission. I admit my surprise because until now I had not yet approached the contribution of Interim Management from this angle.
But I answered that yes, of course, our missions allow the company to permanently change level. And that it is therefore necessary to take care of transferring skills.
But what skills are we talking about? Technical skills ? As if we were manufacturers of fighter planes or cars, with a technology transfer?
Not of course, because a transition mission does not bring business expertise, but above all leadership and organization.
Transfer of leadership? But is leadership really transferable?
Interim management: transfer of skills or know-how?
Let’s start with leadership… It is a know-how and a know-how that is transmitted.
But during our missions, this is done above all by example, in a pragmatic way.
In France, we rather talk about the good functioning that the interim manager transfers to his successor. We ensure very precisely that the future organization (whether it has been restored, consolidated or changed by us) will continue long after our departure.
This “handover” is therefore a crucial issue for our intervention to be a resounding success.
However, there is not really a transfer of skills strictly speaking, but rather a transfer of the “torch” and the delivery of a service, a factory, a subsidiary, in technical working order and human. In short, we deliver a new turnkey organization.
Skills transfer in Africa: a model to follow?
The African business leaders I meet are hungry for skills.
Techniques of course, but also leadership, not so much for them, as it is true that African business leaders no longer have anything to prove about their skills. They are excellent in this regard.
It is mainly about human resources management, internal training and the needs of the company specific to career management:
train middle management managers in the skills required of any good manager
boost the managerial skills of management teams
The missions that we carry out in Ivory Coast or Senegal, if they are in all respects similar to those carried out in France, also include a component of training, tutoring and support towards leadership.
And it is not said that we would not also offer our customers in France the same type of support, embellished with an action plan to avoid seeing the weak operational links that we have put in place and helped to solidify (but which do not last once the mission is completed, due to a “non-leader” management).
Transmission of knowledge and transfer of knowledge: a strong strategic challenge
Our missions all, without exception, have strong strategic challenges.
Whether working with an industrial group, a company on a human scale or with large companies, our desire is to support change and carry out the business strategy of our clients. .
But we also have to show pedagogy and anticipate the transition. And this happens through:
transfer the technical, operational and organizational skills implemented during our intervention
deliver a repository that will allow our customers to identify key skills internally and continue to manage their talents and projects
We want them to be able to adapt the resources at their disposal, because beyond the human resources policy of our clients, it is a new organization of operational work, a new forward-looking management that we wish to perpetuate ( as may be the case in the context of operational excellence management).
It is also the management of “human capital” and the management of internal skills that make our business successful.
Interim management accompanies companies through change, but it is ultimately the teams in place that sustain our interventions. It is a collaborative work, a human work before being a transfer of skills.
(Also discover: how transition management is evolving in Africa)